Eviction Innovation map

What are the most promising interventions and policies to improve the system of evictions in the US?

Here we are documenting the current policy and services landscape, of ideas and programs that are meant to improve how the eviction system functions, to be fairer, less harmful, and more navigable.

Policies on who can be evicted, and on what grounds

Just Cause Eviction ordinance. This law would limit when landlords can an evict a tenant. They must have a ‘just cause’ to file for an eviction. A just cause may include that the tenant failed to pay rent, or because the rental unit needs major repairs. A Just Cause Eviction Ordinance has been adopted in several cities, including Seattle, San Francisco, and Boston.

Pay to Stay ordinance. This law would force a landlord to withdraw an eviction filing (or not proceed with it), if the tenant can pay what they owe to the landlord.

Financial support to people at risk of eviction

Emergency Funds from the city. A local government could have a grant program, to provide one-time financial support to tenants who are at risk of eviction because of non-payment of rent. A city could allocate this grant program from its general funds, to allow people or families to get financial assistance to deal with a crisis that threatens their ability to afford their rent one time.

Emergency funds from non-profits. A similar grant-making program could come from private groups, including those funded by apartment associations or other industry groups that are interested in keeping people in homes. This could be before an eviction notice has been issued, after the notice but before the lawsuit, or after the lawsuit has been filed.

Legal support to those facing eviction

Right to Counsel ordinance. A local government could grant all people facing eviction the right to an attorney at no charge, to represent them at the hearing and help them navigate the lawsuit. The cost of the attorneys could be paid for from a city’s general funds. It would go to increase the capacity and service coverage of legal aid providers, who do housing law/landlord-tenant/eviction work. It would also allow these legal aid providers to represent all people who need help, regardless of the typical service limitations of lack of funding, people’s financial status, or their demographic or geographic details. Right to Counsel ordinances have been passed in New York and San Francisco.

Lawyer for A Day program. Volunteer lawyers or law students come to Housing Court to offer assistance to tenants and landlords who do not have representation. This can include at an Advice and Info Table, or accompanying parties to mediation sessions, or providing full representation at an eviction trial. This takes place in Boston Housing Court, among other locations.

Housing Court navigators. This takes place in New York housing courts, as of February 2014. Volunteers support and assist unrepresented litigants in landlord-tenant and consumer debt cases. They are trained and supervised by lawyers, though they are not lawyers themselves. They provide general information, written materials, and personal assistance to litigants without an attorney. In 2016, the program was evaluated by Professor Rebecca L. Sandefur and Thomas Clarke, and found that they provided meaningful assistance to litigants.

Digital App to Document Problems and Find Help. JustFix NYC has developed a mobile-friendly web application that can help a tenant at risk of an eviction to document problems with their housing, send official notice to their landlord, and present evidence of these problems to the court. They also allow people to connect with groups who can offer them legal and social services.

Help with Landlords and Housing Conditions

Landlord training and mediation support, that train landlords in how to deal with problems that arise with tenants in ways that are less damaging than filing for evictions.

Measuring Problems with Housing, like whether your heating level is falling above or below acceptable levels — like Heat Seek in NYC that provides sensors and measures to determine if a home’s temperature level is out of line with NYC Heath Law

Systematic Data about properties and landlords, that show where there is risk of harassment, displacement, speculation, and other possible problems for tenants who need affordable housing. In NYC, the Association for Neighborhood and Housing Development has the Displacement Alert Project. JustFix in NYC has Who Owns What in NYC that lists out landlords and what they own.

Court Document Redesign, to make the information about the hearing, essential rights and tasks to do, and logistics of the court procedure and legal help to be more actionable and clear.

Text Message Coaching, to send reminders, key logistical details, and handoffs to more services to people during the key time after filing and before the hearing. Wise Messenger is a Stanford Legal Design Lab project that is sending reminders and coaching messages in eviction and other court processes.

More effective notice, that would require landlords to ensure that tenants know of the possibility of an eviction lawsuit, the lawsuit itself, and how to respond and protect themselves.

Online workshops and Livechat/chatbots, that can help a person understand what is happening to them, formulate a response via an Answer filing or court appearance, and prepare for the negotiations with the other party. This could be in the form of volunteer lawyers or legal professionals who are online to do this preparation with people, or pre-set workshops or chatbots that do this automatically.

Court Hearing and Rule design, that would acknowledge that most tenants are self-represented in the hearing, and would make the requirements, protocols, and interactions in the court process more accessible to them. This could involve how the judge speaks to litigants, how evidence is accepted, and how responses and negotiations occur.

Language access support, in the form of services or technology that would give people full understanding of what is happening and ability to respond and participate, no matter what their English proficiency is.

Court Space and Architecture Design, that can affect how lawyers provide advice and support to clients, how tenants can negotiate with landlords, and how people can get quality work and decision-making done at the court building. See the Northeastern law/architecture/design collaboration in Boston housing court for more details: https://morethanbuildings.blogspot.com/

Protections After an Eviction

Property Protection. This law would require landlords to store a tenant’s personal property for at least 30 days after an eviction has happened.

Masking of Records. This law would keep a person’s eviction record off of public records, so that others (including credit agencies and future landlords) would not be able to see that someone was evicted. Eviction cases could be sealed at the point of filing — and only be made public if the court makes a finding against the tenant (like at the end of a trial — not a settlement — in which a court issues an order for eviction).

Disincentivizing Landlords to Evict Tenants

Restrictions on Tax Abatements. This law would limit the tax breaks that landlords could receive for a given property, if people had been evicted from that property within the past two years without ‘just cause’.

Limits on how landlords can treat or charge tenants

Rent Cap. This law would limit how much rent a landlord can charge for a property.

Cap on Raising of Rent. This law would set limits on how much a landlord can raise the rent on a tenant. This could limit the time frame in which a landlord might raise the rent (only one rent increase per 12 months), or the amount that the landlord can raise the rent (only 3.5%, for example).

Cap on Security Deposit Amount. This law would set how much a landlord can ask from a tenant for a security deposit. For example, this could be a limit to maximum 1 month’s rent as security deposit. This would prevent high security deposits (2x or 3x rent) that are prohibitive for many renters, and also are hard to get returned.

Streamlined return of the Security Deposit. This law would increase tenants’ ability to get their security deposit returned. It would address issues many tenants have in getting their deposit back, or having to dispute charges that the landlord makes without sufficient evidence or rationale.

Data to understand to the system

Full Eviction Rates. How many people face eviction actions — including those that are evicted without any lawsuit filed against them in court? While some researchers are gathering information about court filings for evictions, this might vastly undercount the number of people involuntarily displaced from their homes via informal means, including notes from their landlords, threats from them, or other means.

Default Rates and Failure to Appear Rates. How many people who have been sued for eviction actually participate in the court process? How many file answers or make an appearance to respond to the lawsuit formally?

On-the-Ground Outcomes of Different Court Resolutions. When a landlord files an unlawful detainer or eviction lawsuit in the court, to remove a tenant, the recorded resolution in the court proceedings does not always indicate what happens to the tenant or the housing situation. The recorded resolutions might be a Default Judgment, a Settlement, or a finding by the judge at trial. How can researchers understand, though, if a person is still in their home, if they have subsequent housing issues, or what the specific terms of settlements are?

Eviction Outcome Data that preserves Eviction Masking/Protection. What are the protocols that can be used to gather specific, rich data about the outcomes of eviction outcomes — that also preserve the privacy of individuals who have been subject to evictions? How do we not make the research data a risk to people, in which future landlords, creditors, employers, or others might use the data to look up people’s past situations and use it to possibly discriminate against the person?

Demographics of eviction and outcomes. What type of people — race, gender, family situation, neighborhoods, etc — are most likely to face an eviction action? And do different types of people have different kinds of outcomes in court and afterwards?

Legal Aid outcomes. If a person gets limited or full assistance from a legal aid agency, what is their outcome in court?Are they able to represent themselves following the recommendations given? Do they experience a sense of respect, dignity, and procedural justice? And what is their housing situation after the process is over?

Self Help outcomes. If a person gets information or consultation with self-help services in court, what is their outcome in court? Are they able to represent themselves following the recommendations given? Do they experience a sense of respect, dignity, and procedural justice? And what is their housing situation after the process is over?

Eviction to Homelessness connection. If a person goes through a formal eviction, are they using homeless services in the weeks or months afterwards? How often is an eviction action linked to homelessness and housing insecurity?

Eviction to Truancy connection. If a person goes through a formal eviction, are their children more likely to have issues with consistent school attendance, and performance in school?

What is the status quo of the eviction system?

What are the key problems, dynamics, and targets for intervention in the current eviction system?

What is the proportion of residences in Hamilton County that arerenter-occupied? 42.3%

What percentage of renter-occupied units experienced an eviction filing? 8.7% — above the nation’s average of 6.3%

How many evictions are filed in Hamilton County? There were 49,757 eviction filings from 2014 through 2017. That’s an average of about 12,000 filings per year, or more than 230 per week.

How do tenants fare in court, after being sued for eviction? The court decided less than 1 percent of eviction filings in favor of tenants, according to a sample of last year’s filings. Landlords won nearly 48 percent of those cases; nearly 50 percent got dismissed.

Who is represented in court, when a landlord sues a tenant for an eviction? More than 88 percent of landlords have lawyers during eviction proceedings, but fewer than 3 percent of tenants do. The law requires landlords to have lawyers in court if their properties are owned by an LLC or corporation.

Which neighborhoods and demographics of people are most likely to face an eviction lawsuit? Neighborhoods with the highest eviction rates also tend to have the highest rates of poverty and heaviest rent burdens. The racial composition of neighborhoods was a strong predictor of eviction rates, too. Mount Airy had the highest eviction-filing rate of all Census tracts in Hamilton County. Other high eviction neighborhoods include Winton Hills, Avondale and west Walnut Hills.

The Cincy Project: http://thecincyproject.org/; TCP harnesses the expertise and resources from the University of Cincinnati faculty and students, and from Cincinnati community members, non-profits, governments and agencies in order to conduct research that will directly benefit the community.

Design Space for Eviction

Use Cases, People’s Stories, and Requirements

What are the main use cases for which we can be improving the system?

The tenant who is struggling with poor habitability, poor quality of housing — but is not taking action

The tenant who is just sued for eviction, or given notice to that effect.

The tenant who has come to housing court to deal with an eviction lawsuit, but is struggling to navigate the procedure, understand what’s happening, or protect themselves afterward

What are the main metrics we are aiming towards? The main points of data that we are looking to affect and improve?

Legal Capability + Participation in the system: are they able to complete forms, service, hearing attendance, and other system requirements?

Proportion of people who file answers

Proportion of people who attend the hearing (or who Fail to Appear, with a Default)

Proportion of submissions that are accepted or rejected

Time Spent navigating the court system

Length of time it takes to get to resolution

Money spent on procedure

Procedural Justice, including subjective sense of respect and dignity, as well as objective sense of respect given

Have exit surveys in which people use a Procedural Justice survey instrument to rank how fair court was, how much they understood, and what level of respect and dignity they felt they were given

Count the average number of respectful or disrespectful moments that occurred during the eviction hearing